Visiting the So Cal HannsAs mentioned before, a few weeks ago we decided on the spur of the moment to go to Southern California to see our kids. We had just found out that Kevin (who was living in Omaha) was hired for a new job in Mississippi and it was going to be just a couple of weeks before he had to start working. Since it had been over a year since we’d seen him, we asked if he’d be willing to fly to Los Angeles and spend a few days with us and Amy & Andrew before he moved to Meridian, Mississippi and he agreed. Yea!

Whenever we can work it out, one of our mandatory stops is a visit to see Terry’s brother, Ted and their family. They were a big part of the reason that we originally moved to Santa Clarita and we love spending time with them when we we’re there. We miss hanging out with them on holidays and for all of our kids’ activities, so we always look forward to whatever time we can have with them. So we all planned to head over there after we checked into our hotel and Andrew got off work.

They live on top of a hill on a flag lot with a gorgeous view of the Santa Clarita Valley and when we pulled up, the sun was just setting, so I jumped out of the car and ran to the back yard to snap a few pics before the color was gone.

Then we enjoyed some delicious dinner that we picked up from StoneFire Grill in Valencia. I miss this place and had been craving a BBQ Chopped Chicken or Tri tip salad with cilantro dressing! Unfortunately, they ran out of the dressing, so I had to settle for another kind, but the salad was still great. We also had some excellent BBQ Chicken pizza and a new kind, “Allison’s Creation” pizza which was so tasty as well. I would love to have one of these places in Phoenix. I tell you that we would be there all the time! I’m sure it would be a hit here.

We had our dinner on the back patio with that amazing view of the valley. So nice!

After dinner Terry, Kevin and Spencer decided they wanted to play guitars. Fortunately, Spencer has 3 of them so they were all able to play together. Lucas joined in with a little percussion as well.

All the kids are growing up so fast. It won’t be long and they’ll ALL be adults and having kids of their own. That’s just crazy to think about. Wow!

My sister site is “Traveling with Purpose”, where I write about travel, with a focus on life-long learning and helping others through travel. Some of the links below will connect you with this awesome community.